Trump Says Iran War Will End 'Very Soon' as Tanker Hits Mine in Hormuz, Four Days Before Midterms

President Donald Trump said Friday, Oct. 30, that the war with Iran will end "very soon," and that gasoline and diesel prices will fall once it does. He gave no date and no terms.

"Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon," Trump said in an interview with Kansas City radio station KCMO. "And that's going to end very soon, one way or the other, it's going to end very soon."

The war began in late February with Operation Epic Fury, the U.S. military campaign. Election Day is Tuesday, Nov. 3.

A tanker, a mine and a disputed shipping lane

The same day, Iran's Revolutionary Guard said a supertanker carrying more than 2 million barrels of oil caught fire after hitting a naval mine in the Strait of Hormuz. The Guard, speaking through state media, called it the fourth tanker to suffer an explosion Friday after using unauthorized routes.

Tehran says vessels must get its permission to transit the strait. Last month it warned that ships going through without permission risked "destruction." The Guard's account of the explosions has not been independently confirmed.

Adm. Brad Cooper, commander of U.S. Central Command, said Friday that about 50,000 U.S. troops are in the region, including forces patrolling the strait to keep shipping open. U.S. forces have helped Gulf partners export more than 1.5 billion barrels of crude since summer, he said.

Gasoline and diesel prices have risen sharply since the war began, after Iranian forces moved to block ships in Hormuz and laid mines there.

Letters, blockade and what Iran says it wants

The diplomatic picture is murky. Iran's semi-official Tasnim news agency reported Wednesday that Vice President JD Vance sent a letter to Rezaei. Tasnim said Iran had received it but not responded, and that Iran's demands for ending the war are unchanged.

Trump confirmed the outreach Thursday but said it concerned medical supplies reaching Iran under the U.S. naval blockade, not revived peace talks. Asked whether Vance wrote at his direction, Trump said no.

"They need help with medical supplies and various things," Trump said. "He asked me what I thought. I said, if you want to do that, that's okay."

Iran's parliament speaker, Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, said Thursday that Tehran has repeatedly told mediators what its conditions are.

Inside Iran, the outlet Iran International reports a split. Reformists and moderates want renewed talks with Washington, it says, while conservatives and hardliners want military deterrence and Tehran's demands kept intact. President Masoud Pezeshkian has called for negotiations, arguing that prolonged uncertainty is hurting Iran's economy. Iran International also reports that Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei made a call to end the war, on the condition that any deal meets Iran's terms. That account rests on the outlet's own reporting, and Tehran has not confirmed it.

Tehran says it is preparing for round two

The Guard is publicly telling a different story. Spokesman Hossein Mohebbi said late last month that "the war is not over" and that the Guard "has prepared itself for a long-term war."

"The world will be amazed," Mohebbi said. "We have new targets that have not yet been attacked."

Iranian officials have floated cutting undersea internet cables, striking AI data centers and hitting regional oil and gas facilities if hostilities resume. Both sides claim victory. Tehran points to its survival, Washington to the damage done to the regime. Nearly nine months in, the fighting has settled into a stalemate, with the Trump administration still testing new economic and military pressure and Tehran still refusing to capitulate.

Trump has not ruled out escalation. He has said he might order the use of the "Mother of All Bombs" in a future attack on Iran, and that the U.S. might launch a "little" version of Operation Epic Fury.

Gas prices on the campaign trail

The war is now a campaign issue. Karoline Leavitt, the former White House press secretary, said Friday that Trump has been "very upfront" with voters in Iowa and elsewhere about the war's effect on fuel costs.

"It's a short-term consequence," Leavitt said on Fox News. "But overall, his energy policy will bring gas prices and diesel costs down again."

The White House line, repeated by spokeswoman Olivia Wales, is that Republican control of Congress means safer streets, lower taxes, a secure border and energy dominance. No one in the administration has said when the war ends or what it would take to get pump prices back down.

Trump's schedule shows how much he is staking on the final stretch. By The Daily Wire's count, Wednesday's Ohio stop was his 28th rally of the cycle. He is scheduled to be in Salina, Kansas, today, Oct. 31, and in Dubuque, Iowa, on Sunday. The White House has not said where he will be on Monday or on Election Day.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meeting Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan Al Saud on the sidelines of the G20 foreign ministers' meeting in Atlanta on Friday, discussed Iran, Sudan and Yemen, the State Department said.

Trump's own words leave the central question open: "one way or the other" covers a negotiated deal and a resumed bombing campaign alike. Iran has not yet answered the Vance letter, according to Tasnim, and its stated conditions have not moved. Voters go to the polls Tuesday with the strait contested and the war unresolved.